Do Not Call List Busted! Marketplace Goes Undercover in a Pakistani Call Centre That is Harassing Canadians on DNC List

Jan 8, 2013

You're on the Canadian Do Not Call List, but are still being harassed by telemarketers. No matter how many times you tell them to stop, you still get the annoying phone calls. You complain to Ottawa, but still no satisfaction. So MARKETPLACE pulls out all the stops, and gets to the bottom of it. In To Catch a Telemarketer, MARKETPLACE goes undercover into the secret world of telemarketing call centres. We end up, of all places, in Karachi, Pakistan, and discover a telemarketing company that targets Canadians. The telemarketers use fake names, fake phone numbers and fake company names, but the anger and frustration they're causing back in Canada is real.
VIDEO: click to see a sneak preview http://youtu.be/XDzip1aZwV4

Companies are breaking the law, and harassing people - sometimes in vulgar and inappropriate ways - and to these Canadians, regulators seem to be asleep at the switch. MARKETPLACE shows the CRTC the tapes of Canadians being harassed, and asks for answers. And using hidden cameras, we go inside the telemarketing machine in Karachi to see how this shady operation works, and why Canadians are powerless to make it stop.
Beginning live at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT), on Friday, Jan. 11, across all time zones, Canadians are invited to join a live web chat about the episode and telemarketers at cbc.ca/marketplace with host, Tom Harrington.

Then on Friday, Jan. 18, MARKETPLACE wires up a bait house with hidden cameras to test air duct cleaners - the service the pesky telemarketers in Pakistan were trying to sell us the week before. To stop the annoying calls, one woman even books a cleaning, though the cleaners are a no-show. However, we finally catch up with them; it's Big Brother, MARKETPLACE style, with a surprising twist of fate.

Celebrating its 40th season this winter, MARKETPLACE takes a look back over the first five weeks at some of the series' most memorable moments. Winner of the 2011 Gemini Award for Best News Information Series, MARKETPLACE airs Fridays at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC Television. MARKETPLACE also airs Saturdays at 9:30 p.m. ET and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. ET on CBC News Network. For more information on MARKETPLACE, visit our website at cbc.ca/marketplace, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/cbcerica and twitter.com/cbctom. Executive producer is Tassie Notar.

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